This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: http://www.todayszaman.com
Apr 4, 2009
One of the most senior politicians in Europe, Javier Solana, said history is history and should be analyzed by historians when asked if some European national parliaments' resolutions on the Armenian "genocide" had helped the reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia.
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana gave one of his rare interviews to Today's Zaman hours before the crucia
Source: NYT Week in Review
Apr 4, 2009
The astronomical metrics of Shmuel are by now considered inexact, but close enough so that the religious tradition persists, so that Jews like Rabbi Bleich believe that the sun next Wednesday occupies the same location in the firmament as it did when it was formed on the fourth day of Creation, which would have been Wednesday, March 26, of the Hebrew year 1, otherwise known as 3760 B.C.
While Birchat HaChammah is intermittent, Rabbi Bleich’s interest in it is constant. He stands as
Source: AP
Apr 4, 2009
Elwin Hope Wilson leans back in his recliner, a sad, sickly man haunted by time....
Wilson doesn't have answers for much of how he has lived his life — not for all the black people he beat up, not for all the venom he spewed, not for all the time wasted in hate.
Now 72 and ailing, his body swollen by diabetes, his eyes degenerating, Wilson is spending as many hours pondering his past as he is his mortality.
The former Ku Klux Klan supporter says he wants t
Source: IHT
Apr 4, 2009
In the past week, Egypt marked the historic 30-year anniversary of its peace treaty with Israel without any public celebration and only the barest public mention.
It is not surprising, really, that there was no cheering here. The timing could hardly have been worse, with memories still fresh of the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
But mention of the anniversary also served as a reminder of promises unfulfilled. Egyptians were told that the treaty would lead to a comprehensiv
Source: AP
Apr 4, 2009
Elwin Hope Wilson leans back in his recliner, a sad, sickly man haunted by time.
Wilson doesn't have answers for much of how he has lived his life — not for all the black people he beat up, not for all the venom he spewed, not for all the time wasted in hate.
Now 72 and ailing, his body swollen by diabetes, his eyes degenerating, Wilson is spending as many hours pondering his past as he is his mortality.
The former Ku Klux Klan supporter says he wants to at
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 4, 2009
A close aide to Ronald Reagan has claimed that the former US president tried to convert the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Christianity.
A new biography that draws on recently declassified documents discloses a secret exchange between the two leaders that left at least one official present convinced that Reagan had tried to persuade his counterpart of God's existence.
The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan, by the former Los Angeles Times reporter James Mann, provides fres
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 4, 2009
Henry VIII, known as the scourge of the Catholic church, has been revealed as having been a firm believer in the religion he later tried to destroy, thanks to a new discovery.
A prayer roll once belonging to Henry and inscribed with his own handwriting, has been brought to light ahead of a major new exhibition on his life.
It will be shown in public for the first time at the British Library's exhibition Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, which opens later this month and mark
Source: AP
Apr 4, 2009
A German justice official denied Saturday that the deportation of suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk from the U.S. to Germany for possible trial would amount to torture.
Demjanjuk won a reprieve Friday _ his 89th birthday _ from his ordered deportation to Germany. The retired autoworker, who lives in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, argued that given his frail health, the deportation would have amounted to torture.
Demjanjuk was originally expected to arrive Mon
Source: http://fredericksburg.com
Apr 3, 2009
Most Orange County supervisors don't appear any more interested in the latest attempt by preservationists to engage them in a discussion of land use than they were the first time.
Members of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition sent a letter this week to Board of Supervisors Chairman Lee Frame asking for the county to agree to a "comprehensive planning process for the Wilderness Battlefield/Orange County gateway region."
The letter reiterates an offer made ear
Source: NYT
Apr 3, 2009
At the end of 2008, according to the Federal Reserve Board, total debt in the financial sector came to $17.2 trillion, or 121 percent of the size of the gross domestic product of the United States. That was $1 trillion more than a year earlier, when the total came to 115 percent of G.D.P.
Half a century earlier, the financial sector debt was $21 billion, which came to just 6 percent of G.D.P.
Household debt, by contrast, stood at $13.8 trillion at the end of both 2007 a
Source: AP
Apr 3, 2009
AMSTERDAM – To see some of the most important documents in the early history of New York, you need to go to Amsterdam.
The Rijksmuseum, the Netherland's national museum, put those documents on display Friday, including early maps and the only report of the purchase of Manhattan by Europeans.
The exhibit marks the 400th anniversary of the departure of Henry Hudson in April 1609 on the expedition that would lead to colonization of the New York area...
The exh
Source: Times Daily (AL)
Apr 3, 2009
It's been 147 years since the sounds of cannon and rifles echoed through the woodlands surrounding a little whitewashed church in southern Tennessee in what would become one of the bloodiest battles during the Civil War.
This weekend, visitors to Shiloh National Military Park can get a glimpse of what life was like for soldiers in the Battle of Shiloh.
Park ranger Joe Davis said about 150 re-enactors dressed in Civil War attire will help the living history programs.
Source: NYT
Apr 3, 2009
This week competing theories about the Depression and the New Deal were once again on display at a conference at the Council on Foreign Relations’ New York headquarters, co-hosted by the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, and partly organized by Ms. [Amity] Shlaes [author of “The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression”].
She and other critics of the New Deal credit Roosevelt with some important innovations, like restoring confidence in banks an
Source: BBC
Apr 3, 2009
One hundred years ago, Sir Ernest Shackleton tried, but narrowly failed, to become the first man to reach the South Pole. Descendants of his team have been retracing and completing his journey.
A century later, the three men, setting out on the route pioneered by Shackleton must trek the equivalent of 35 marathons in 70 days.
And they must complete the 800 nautical miles (equivalent to 920 miles or 1420km) across some of the most extreme terrain and conditions on the pl
Source: CBS News
Apr 3, 2009
A mushroom cloud half a century ago has helped clear up a vital medical question: Can the heart make new cells and repair itself?
"I would say that in the heart field, that this is one of those important studies that is going to change the way that we think for a very long time," said Dr. Richard T. Lee, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Scientists solved the mystery by going back in time.
Until it was banned in 1963, nuclear weapons t
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Apr 3, 2009
Thursday’s jury verdict in Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the University of Colorado has given rise to a mystery: How is it that a jury could rule that the university had acted illegally in firing Mr. Churchill, and yet still award him only $1 in damages?
Five of the six members of the jury have told court officials they do not wish to speak with reporters about their thinking. But a sixth, Bethany Newill, called a local radio station, KHOW, last night and said the $1 judgment was
Source: AP
Apr 3, 2009
Alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk (dem-YAHN'-yuk) is marking his 89th birthday in seclusion as he awaits word on an appeal to halt his deportation to Germany.
The retired auto worker from suburban Cleveland says his deportation would amount to torture, given his frail health.
Source: AFP
Apr 3, 2009
Egyptian customs officials have foiled an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of pharaonic artefacts hidden in furniture, state news agency MENA reports.
The agency quoted customs official Galal Abul Fatuh as saying it was the largest smuggling bust in a decade, adding the priceless relics had been hidden in furniture and wood products destined for Spain.
The smugglers were arrested and the relics were handed over to Egypt's antiquities council, he added.
Source: AP
Apr 3, 2009
Newly published photographs of the aftermath of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. languished for decades in Life magazine's archive before being published on the magazine's Web site this week.
About a dozen black-and-white pictures that went online Thursday include scenes of King's associates meeting solemnly in the civil rights leader's motel room, standing on the balcony where he stood for the las
Source: Foxnews
Apr 3, 2009
Alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk (dem-YAHN'-yuk) is marking his 89th birthday in seclusion as he awaits word on an appeal to halt his deportation to Germany.
The retired auto worker from suburban Cleveland says his deportation would amount to torture, given his frail health.
Demjanjuk kept out of sight Friday, as has been the case for years.
His son, John Demjanjuk Jr., says the family is awaiting word on the appeal. The immigration appeals cour
